


a beginning and an end

by musicals_musicals



Category: The Prom - Sklar/Beguelin/Martin
Genre: Best Friends, Childhood Friends, Dance With Us 2020, Gen, Kaylee didn't exactly know Emma was gay but also she knew, Small Town Social Hierarchy, Truth or Dare, alyssa is there but she doesn't speak so she doesn't get tagged, is that a thing?, kaylee's family isn't like rich rich, they just have enough that they don't have to worry about it as much as emma's
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:48:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27900271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicals_musicals/pseuds/musicals_musicals
Summary: "You don't feel even slightly bad for Emma? You guys used to hang out.""That was before she turned gay."When Emma moves to Edgewater, the first friend she makes is Kaylee Klein.
Relationships: Emma Nolan & Kaylee (The Prom Musical)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22
Collections: Dance With Us Week 2020





	a beginning and an end

**Author's Note:**

> created for day 2 of dance with us week for the prompt of relationships. I think the relationship between kaylee and emma has a lot of potential, like sure,,, maybe they were just school friends who kinda knew each other but WHAT IF they were best friends.

_2005_

Emma is 5 years old and it has been exactly two weeks since her family moved to Edgewater. After breakfast instead of going outside to play on their tiny swing set, Emma’s mother herded her out the front door. They walked quickly down the block, her mother looking down at her watch every few minutes. 

They turned on a street that Emma didn’t recognize and stopped in front of the third house.

“What did we talk about while we were putting on our shoes?” Mrs. Nolan asked, leaning down to look Emma in the eye.

“Always be polite to new people” Emma recited, still unsure of what was going on “Why?”

“I’m going to be meeting with one of mommy’s new friends while you play with her daughter who’s about your age” Mrs. Nolan explained, the Klein’s liking them it would be essential to the Nolan’s social life in Edgewater thanks to their status “It is very important that they like us”

“What if she’s mean?” Emma asked, usually her mother’s friend’s kids were kinda rude and made Emma feel bad.

“It doesn't matter,” Mrs. Nolan was never going to be able to explain the intricacies of a small town social hierarchy to a five year old “Her family is important enough that she gets to be mean”

That seemed wrong, Emma’s old preschool teacher always said that everyone should be nice to everyone. “That doesn’t seem fair”

Mrs. Nolan check her watch again and began ushering Emma up the walkway “Time to head inside”

Emma hid behind her mother as she knocked on the door. After a few seconds the door was opened by a tall woman with dark hair.

While the grown up conversed Emma looked around the house. It was way bigger than her own house, there appeared to be a room just for the shoes and the front door.

“–And who is this?” Mrs. Klein asked, waving at Emma where she was glued to her mother’s side.

Emma looked up at her mother who waved her forward, mouthing _be polite_ and pushing her away. Emma held out her hand to shake like she always saw the adults so “I’m Emma”

“Nice to meet you Emma. My daughter Kaylee is about your age” Mrs. Klein said, before sticking her head out of the room “Kaylee!”

A girl who must’ve been Kaylee walked into the room, looking hesitantly at Emma and her mother “Hello?”

“Kaylee this is Mrs. Nolan and her daughter Emma, I was hoping you could play with Emma while I talk to her mother” Mrs. Klein took Kaylee’s hand and led her closer to Emma “Show Emma where to put her shoes, then you can go play with some toys”

“Okay,” Kaylee pointed to the mat next to the door “You can put your shoes there, the pink ones are mine”

Emma examined the pink tennis shoes, they were velcro with little jewels along the seams. “They’re very pretty” Emma’s own shoes looked a little sad next to the pink ones. Her own shoes were a plain dark blue, bought a few months before the family moved because they were on clearance.

As soon as Emma finished with her shoes Kaylee took her hand leading her out of the room and up the stairs “We’re going this way”

“What kind of toys do you have?” Emma asked, curiously taking in the rest of the house. It was far cleaner than Emma’s house, and she still didn’t see any toys.

Kaylee squinted at Emma “How do you feel about legos?”

“I love legos!"

“Perfect,” Kaylee opened a door at the top of the stairs revealing a room full of toys. That explained why Emma hadn’t seen any toys in the rest of the house. “This is the play room”

“Where are the legos?” Emma asked. Her legos were kept in a plastic box, but she didn’t see anything similar in the room.

Kaylee walked over and pulled out one of the drawers on a small dresser “They’re right here” She dumped the drawer in the middle of the room “Do you want to build a castle?”

“Yeah!” Emma sat across from Kaylee on the floor “Can I build a tower?”

“Sure! I’m going to build a wall around the tower”

The two fell into silence while they worked on the legos, both focused on their own job. Kaylee seemed nice, Emma liked her.

\--------

_2010_

“Mom, can Kaylee sleep over after the movie?” Emma asked, doing her best puppy eyes into the rearview mirror. They were on their way to the closest theater to see tangled, Emma and Kaylee entertaining themselves with a deck of uno cards that Emma kept in the door.

“I don’t know girls…”

“Please,” Kaylee leaned into the front seat, pulling her seatbelt tight “My parents said it was okay”

“We aren’t doing anything tomorrow,” Emma pointed out. She dropped a blue 8 on the uno pile, effectively switching the color away from green.

“I’ll have to check with Kaylee’s parents” Mrs. Nolan said, not buying Kaylee’s claim.

“They’re okay with it!” Kaylee insisted, drawing 3 new cards until she finally got a blue one. “I promise!”

“No promises but I’ll call your parents after the movie and we’ll discuss it” Mrs. Nolan turned into the movie theatre parking lot and parked the car “Make sure you put away the uno cards, we don’t want them to get lost”

“But I was about to win,” Emma complained, dropping her last two cards on the pile.

“Hey, maybe I was going to make a comeback” Kaylee argued, gathering all the cards into one pile and putting the rubber band around them “I guess we’ll never know”

“I won" Emma insisted, stepping out of the car with a bounce. "Ready?"

Kaylee and Emma began sprinting towards the theatre until Mrs. Nolan yelled at them. They slowed to a walk, laughing and pushing each other back and forth until they got inside.

\------

_2015_

Kaylee has known Emma for 10 years, she would quickly describe the other girl as her best friend, and as such there are things she knows to be true about Emma. For example the other girls dislike of pineapple, or the fact that she loves shitty pop music. Emma doesn’t like to lie, she’s not bad at it, she just doesn’t like it, prefers to be honest with people.

That said, Emma always lies about her crushes.

Kaylee doesn’t get it, she tells Emma about all of her crushes, even the embarrassing ones, it’s part of their friendship. Emma is happy to tell her who she has a crush on, but she always lies about it. Kaylee probably wouldn’t notice if she didn’t know Emma so well, as it is, the lie flies right over Shelby’s head.

They’re playing truth or dare, sitting in Shelby’s basement. Since they’re uncreative teenage girls, you can’t say truth without getting hit with a love life question.

“Emma truth or dare?” Shelby asks, cleaning the last of the shaving cream off her hands from her previous dare.

Emma eyes the shaving cream and the way Alyssa’s hair is sticking straight up in the air “Truth?”

“Boring,” Shelby groans “Fine, who do you have a crush on?”

Kaylee rolls her eyes at the cliche, but can’t stop herself from leaning a little closer because maybe Emma won’t lie to Shelby, maybe it’s just a thing when Kaylee asks. That would suck, but at least Kaylee would know.

“Um,” Emma glances across the circle, shooting Alyssa a minuscule smile. _Well, that’s interesting._ “Jason’s kind of cute”

_Lie._

Kaylee isn't actually that surprised a year later when Emma comes out as gay.

**Author's Note:**

> its been so long since i've written for the prom i missed them. the way i see it kaylee's family isn't like rich rich they're just like not worrying about money as much as emma's family
> 
> comments and kudos are fun, find me on tumblr [@izzy-mccalla](http://izzy-mccalla.tumblr.com/) I'm the fool who's hosting dance with us week but refused to actually prep until this week :/


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